A typical case of application for this is in automotive construction, where threaded studs, which can be welded on, soldered on or riveted, are used as electrical contact studs for fastening an electrical contact.
From EP 0 640 404 A1 a method is known, by which an electrical contact between a contact shoe and a sheet of metal to be painted is produced with the aid of a threaded stud and a cap nut. The cap nut is herein used in two ways. On the one hand the cap nut protects the threaded stud from being coated with paint during the painting process and on the other hand with the aid of the cap nut a contact shoe is fastened to the threaded stud. The advantage of this method, which uses metal cap nuts, is that by using the cap nut both as covering cap and as fastening element unnecessary waste in the form of covering caps covered with paint is avoided, as described in the prior art, for example of EP 0 243 078 B1.
A disadvantage of the known method is that the cap nut is a relatively expensive component if it is made of metal and that it has to be tightened with a large torque against the contact shoe, so that it does not come loose. However, large torques or large forces present a problem with mechanically sensitive workpieces, such as, for example thin sheets of metal, as they can cause deformations or damage to the workpiece when the nut is tightened.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to create economically an electrical contact stud, a cap nut, an electrical contact system and a method for fastening an electrical contact, whereby electrical contacts can be fastened to particularly sensitive workpieces, for example thin sheets of metal.